The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC) in Cairo is located in the Cairo neighborhood of El Fustat and aims to narrate the history of civilization in Egypt from its origins to modern times. Although the construction is not finished and the whole project is yet to be completed, some of its exhibition halls are already open to the public.
The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization occupies an area of 135,000 square meters. At least 23,000 meters are intended to house the permanent collection with Predynastic, Pharaonic, Roman, Coptic, Nubian or Islamic works, accompanied by recreations and audiovisual systems that help the didactics of the museum. In addition, rooms have been created for temporary exhibitions, storage for archaeological material, restoration laboratories and spaces dedicated to multiple services (cafeteria, theater, stores, etc.). In the project, for the future, it seems that the possibility of transferring the royal mummies housed in the Cairo Museum to these new facilities is being considered.
The idea of building the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization dates back to the reign of King Farouk from 1938 to 1949, and King Farouk's insistence on building a museum similar to museums in Europe documenting the various civilizations in Egypt. The Agricultural Society dedicated an entire building inside to the creation of a model of the Museum of Civilization to display all the historical stages in Egypt.
After many years, the idea of establishing the museum in 1982 was renewed, following an international campaign led by UNESCO to establish the National Museum of Civilization. After 17 years, the current site of the museum was selected, and the process of construction and excavation began in 2000, to establish the museum as a cultural, civilizational, scientific, and research center, in addition to becoming a communication center for the local, regional and international community to work to preserve Egypt's ancient cultural heritage, protect it from looting and extinction, and accommodate 50 thousand varied antiquities from pre-familial to modern times.
The collection of crockery known as black-rimmed pots is one of the most outstanding collections that the museum will present; it dates back to pre-familiar times, some 7000years, and still retains its shape, quality and luster, as well as a collection of "Alfaains", pottery painted with a layer of bright green, inscribed and then burned again, and dates back to the time of the modern state.
The Museum of Civilization is the only one in the exhibition of the first and oldest clock in history known to ancient Egypt, the first water clock, the other solar, "Ladders" to deterninar time, a series of agricultural tools to measure distances, land and spaces to determine the neighboring boundaries, as well as the scale of the first Nile that determined the height of the Nile River, which was responsible for the alarm at the time of the flood, and there are also exhibits of Islamic and Coptic art.
The main hall of the museum presents contemporary works by people who have influenced our lives by their work in modern times, such as Mahmoud Mukhtar, Sa 'id al-Sadr, Hassan Fathi and others. Thus, the museum visitor follows the stages of the development of Egyptian civilization through the ages, and sees before him a presentation of the achievements made by the Egyptians in various areas of life from the dawn of time to the present.
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